I love all the foods you say are good. You have GREAT taste! What are your
ten favorite diet-friendly foods and/or food products and why?

Seeking HG Foods

Dear Seeking,

Hmmmmm... that's a hard one, but a REALLY good question. My favorite diet-
friendly foods change a lot, and they vary an awful lot, too. So I'm going to
make a list -- but just know that this list can change on any given day. But as
of right now, here are my top ten faves (in no particular order)...

1. House Foods Tofu Shirataki - This is the world's best guilt-free pasta swap
(40 calories for a whole bag)!

2. The Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedges - Only 35 calories per wedge,
and they make an awesome ingredient for cheese sauces and can double as
a cream cheese swap.

3. Almond Breeze, Unsweetened Vanilla - Less than half the calories of skim
milk with twice the flavor. Just 40 calories for a WHOLE CUP.

My friends and I LOVE, LOVE your site. Thank you! We do have one question,
though. We're not fans of light soymilk, and a bunch of the HG recipes call
for light vanilla soymilk. We would rather substitute skim or low-fat milk in
your recipes. Would that affect their outcome? Does the soymilk act as a
thickener?

Another Hungry Girl

Dear Another HG,

You can definitely substitute other milks in place of light vanilla soymilk in HG
recipes. It shouldn't affect the texture too much -- with skim, your results
may be a little less creamy. Using ordinary, unflavored milk instead of light
vanilla soymilk will cause your recipes to taste a bit different though. They'll
be slightly less sweet and vanilla-y. But, you can fix that by adding a drop
(and I mean a DROP) of vanilla extract and a bit of no-calorie sweetener to
the milk to get the vanilla taste going. As for the nutritional difference, skim
milk has about 20 calories more per cup than the average light vanilla
soymilk, and 2% milk has about 50 extra calories and 3 grams more fat per
cup compared to light vanilla soymilk. One last soymilk swap I recommend
for HG recipes (it's also my favorite!) is Almond Breeze in Unsweetened
Vanilla -- this stuff only has 40 calories per cup (about half the calories of
skim milk!), but it's sooooo creamy. So when it comes to soymilk swapping,
go for it, but use this info to determine how the taste, texture and nutritionals
will be affected. Good luck!

CHEW ON THIS:
Today, September 5th, is National Cheese Pizza Day. Check out Fit 'n Free
Pizza for a guilt-free version -- or whip up some at home by baking a low-cal
tortilla 'til crispy and topping it with tomato sauce, fat-free mozzarella and
spices!

Links:
http://www.pizzafree.com/

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